{"id":22852,"date":"2024-01-19T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T11:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=22852"},"modified":"2024-01-19T05:00:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T11:00:16","slug":"pennsylvania-cannot-bar-adults-under-21-from-carrying-guns-court-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=22852","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania cannot bar adults under 21 from carrying guns, court rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jan 18 (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that Pennsylvania laws that ban 18- to 20-year-olds from carrying firearms in public during a state of emergency are unconstitutional, citing a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that expanded gun rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 2-1 vote held, opens new tab<\/u><\/a> that the right to keep and bear arms under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment extended to adults under the age of 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It marked the latest instance of a court striking down a gun law after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority changed the landscape of firearms regulation with its June 2022 ruling<\/u><\/a> in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That ruling recognized for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense. It also established a new test for assessing firearms laws, saying restrictions must be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Circuit Judge Kent Jordan in Thursday’s opinion wrote that the “words ‘the people’ in the Second Amendment presumptively encompass all adult Americans, including 18- to 20-year-olds, and we are aware of no founding-era law that supports disarming people in that age group.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His opinion was joined by a fellow appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, U.S. Circuit Judge D. Brooks Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Circuit Judge L. Felipe Restrepo, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, dissented, saying the Second Amendment did not cover individuals under 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling was a victory for the Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition, two gun rights groups that along with several young Pennsylvanians filed a lawsuit in 2020 challenging the state restrictions on 18- to 20-year-olds carrying guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Today’s ruling ensures that these individuals have the ability to defend themselves during a state of emergency,” Adam Kraut, the Second Amendment Foundation’s executive director, said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, a Democrat who defended the state’s laws in court, said her office was disappointed with the ruling and considering options to further appeal it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Pennsylvania law, individuals must be at least 21 to apply for a license to carry concealed firearms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While typically unlicensed individuals could still carry guns openly, a state statute barred people from carrying firearms on public streets or property if a state of emergency was declared unless they had a license or fell into a different category of exceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jan 18 (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that Pennsylvania laws that ban 18- to 20-year-olds from carrying firearms in public during a state of emergency are unconstitutional, citing a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that expanded gun rights. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 2-1 vote held, opens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3773,26007,4789,1723,4062,1356],"class_list":["post-22852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-adults","tag-cannot-prohibit","tag-carry","tag-court","tag-firearms","tag-pennsylvania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22854,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22852\/revisions\/22854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}